


L'Ami Invisible

by dayneslegacy



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Christmas, Gen, Grantaire rambles, Les Amis being a family, Secret Santa, but he means well, really - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:28:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28096179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dayneslegacy/pseuds/dayneslegacy
Summary: "Christmas was close, closer than any of them could realise, and along with Christmas came the perfect time for the kind of group activities that the members of Les Amis either loved or were forced to participate in. Although most of them had endless ideas for games and festivities, the ‘16 Ice Skating Incident had meant the decision to just play Secret Santa every year and to ban Bahorel and Bossuet from any potentially slippery surfaces."Les Amis de l'ABC hold a Secret Santa game for Christmas night.For the Les Mis Gift Exchange 2020
Relationships: Enjolras & Gavroche Thénardier, Feuilly & Grantaire (Les Misérables), Les Amis de l'ABC Friendship
Comments: 5
Kudos: 11
Collections: Les Mis Holiday Exchange (2020)





	L'Ami Invisible

**Author's Note:**

  * For [muse_in_absentia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/muse_in_absentia/gifts).



“So, does everybody have a name?”

As the only answer, a single hand went up. “Uh… Actually, I got myself again… Can we repeat the raffle?”

Groans and complaints filled the room as everyone threw their papers back inside the wool hat they were using for the game. 

Christmas was close, closer than any of them could realise, and along with Christmas came the perfect time for the kind of group activities that the members of Les Amis either loved or were forced to participate in. Although most of them had endless ideas for games and festivities, the ‘16 Ice Skating Incident had meant the decision to just play Secret Santa every year and to ban Bahorel and Bossuet from any potentially slippery surfaces.

Combeferre took the last paper from the hat, a smile forming in his lips as he read it. He himself had handwritten the names in every piece of paper, and could see some people around the room squinting their eyes to try and figure out his calligraphy. Joly, used to reading Combeferre’s college notes, had already understood the name and now held the paper to his chest, not letting anyone around him read the content. For a good reason, as Courfeyrac pranced around the room pretending to make small talk with all of his friends, keeping an eye on the names of their giftees.

He was, as well, the first to leave the Musain along with Cosette and Marius, the former worried with the way the latter had turned pale and silent after drawing the name out of the hat. It wasn’t long until everyone left for their houses, talking about one subject and one subject only: the upcoming festivities.

-

Christmas night soon arrived, and the flat shared by Enjolras and Combeferre, otherwise inhabited only by books and stress, started to come to life with the enthusiasm of their friends.

Most of them were inside the kitchen, trying not to step on the food tuppers that covered the floor, too many of them to put on the table. The improvised chefs went from the kitchen to the living room and from the living room to the kitchen, carrying trays of canapés and glasses of wine. Only one of them, the chief, stood in the centre of the room with his arms crossed, eager to partake in the action.

“Feuilly, I promise you, I don’t mind cooking and-” 

Jehan was the one to answer instead, not looking up from the oven. “This is your house, Enjolras. It is kind enough of you to take us all in here, you don’t also need to cook!”

“You really, really don’t need to cook, trust me” Courfeyrac appeared through the door, looking at Enjolras with a grin on his face and a box full of decorations in his hands. “Here, this is what you can do instead. If you could please cover the non festive parts of the house…?” 

Before Enjolras could protest, the poet spoke again. “You know I love early Nineteenth Century literature as much as the next person here, E, but John Keats doesn’t have a Santa hat in any of those books and that is just inadmissible”

“...Fine. But you need to let me bake the desserts”

Once defeated, Enjolras left the kitchen to find Gavroche with his eyes glued to the pile of Secret Santa gifts that had been gathered in the living room.

“Will you help me, kid? Four hands work better than two” And a busy Gavroche makes less of a mess than a free one… he thought.

The child stared at him for longer than Enjolras would like until he finally spoke:

“Are you my Secret Santa?”

“No?” Enjolras answered, “But if I was, I wouldn’t tell you, now would I?”

“That’s a good point”, the boy admitted, making a face.

“We are not going to open the presents until after dinner so… why don’t we just prepare the decorations? Together?”

“Okay!” He answered, the grimace in his face now gone, as he took the box off of Enjolras’ hands. “I don’t understand why you and ‘Ferre don’t decorate the house, you have lots and lots of stuff in here”

He took a silver tinsel out of the box and wrapped it around his shoulders like a very itchy scarf.

Enjolras just shrugged at the question as he hung one of the ornaments next to the Christmas tree. “We don’t have much time, you know? With Law School, and Combeferre being about to start his Internship…”

“I could help you decorate” Enjolras’ lips hinted at the start of a smile at the boy’s suggestion “If it weren’t for me, this house would probably look like a barn” He tilted his head to the side. “More than it already does”

Before Enjolras could scold the kid for his manners, the kitchen door flung open and his friends entered the living room. “Dinner is ready!” exclaimed one, “Is the table still not set?”, said another, “I thought we agreed to ban complaining on Christmas!”. 

When the table was finally laid and everyone was sat down, only one seat remained empty- the same way as one of the Secret Santa gifts had mysteriously disappeared.

“That damned kid!” The angry tone on Bahorel’s voice did not quite match the laughter that followed. “I don’t know why I even got him the gift if I wasn’t even going to see him open it, the smart punk”

When everyone around the table looked at him, he cleared his throat and tried to correct himself:

“I don’t know why his Ami Invisible got him the gift, I meant to say… I am very clearly visible, aren’t I?” He made wide gestures towards his bright jacket. “I don’t know what any of you are trying to say!”

Bossuet laughed and raised his glass.

“Well, that is one less “Secret” Santa to uncover… To our invisible and visible friends!”

The dinner went by pretty quickly, with animated chatter filling the room. The wine glasses were emptied almost as quickly as the plates were, and at one point, even Enjolras sang an annoying and repetitive ditty about Santa Claus being too sick to deliver Christmas gifts around the world.

Only when the kitchen had been completely emptied of about a year’s savings, they decided to leave the table and settle around the presents.

“Who wants to open theirs first?”, asked Cosette.

“Marius should!”, Courfeyrac almost jumped from his seat, “I mean… since he left in a hurry the other day and all… It’s only fair”

He lightly pushed him towards a bright paper envelope, inside of which rested two packages labeled “Pontmercy”. Marius first opened the bigger and softer one, a red doormat with an obscene wordplay in it.

“Oh… well, thank you, my Santa…” He said, not looking at anyone in particular. “I really like it!” He nervously looked at the writing. “I think it is very clever how it takes the double meaning of c-”

“Just open the other one, Pontmercy!” Courfeyrac rolled his eyes and whispered: “It was a joke, okay?”

The second present was luckily much more to Marius’ liking. A copy of Buch der Lieder by Heinrich Heine, one of the authors that he loved to talk about. Now with a smile, Marius thanked his -not so secret- Santa again, and more people started to open their presents.

The next one was Courfeyrac, who unwrapped a notebook and a pen, the little box decorated with dry flowers. The cover of the notebook was a collage of pictures of him and his friends, with a cinema ticket of one of his favourite movies and a handwritten poem. At the bottom of the box, a note said:

“Use this gift wisely, de Courfeyrac. And by that, I mean that your dating stories would be much more interesting in verse.”

Signed only with a heart and a winking face.

After him went Combeferre, who also received a book and a note, except that this one only read: “Sorry about that one time at the Musain :(“. This was, of course, not the only book to be gifted that night, which prompted some laughs and the occasional “nerd” being called out.

One of them was Prouvaire’s gift, who got a beautiful poetry book that he, unfortunately, already had.

“I should have known, really…” Bossuet lowered his head. “I can tell you where I bought it and maybe they will give you a refund, don’t worry.”

Instead, Jean smiled and handed him the book. “Why would I want a refund? This book was gifted to me by Santa himself!” He opened the book to the first page and gave him a pen. “Sign it. That way I will be able to tell apart the regular one and the… magical one”

“I want to go next!”, Joly exclaimed. 

“Santa” was the one to sign it first, but in no time the book had gone through everyone’s hands and had countless signatures, Christmas wishes and drawings of suns and stars that left the little poet stroking the newly opened book for the rest of the evening.

Feuilly was the last person to open, not only a book, but a package full of them. His eyes softened as he took out one and each of those literature classics out of the box, and by the time the messy handwriting on a Christmas cardboard explained to him how his Secret Santa had chosen all of those books specially to fuel his love of reading, both him and Combeferre had tears in their eyes. Apparently, though, Combeferre did for a completely different and undisclosed reason that no one brought up again.

After the books, artistic presents began to rise. Cosette received a beautiful fan painted with black and white birds that she immediately started to use, even though the house was not too far from freezing. Grantaire found for himself a brand new selection of painting utensils, the very box clarifying: “These are acrylic and not oleum paintings, they are less toxic and it is harder to be poisoned from using them”; Bossuet carefully unpacked a glass plate decorated with floral motives and a small oleum painting of a bald eagle which, upon closer examination, one could see that the eagle’s features were quite realistic… The entire house erupted with laughter and only the plate’s model remained silent, a half smile crossing his face.

“Thank you very much, Secret Santa… You asshole”

His Secret Santa tipped an imaginary hat with one of his hands, the other one not leaving the bottle of wine.

And then, clothes were the main topic of the gifts. Éponine received a handsewn blue dress, along with a picture of seven year old her wearing a very similar one and smiling. She was missing one of her front teeth, an unmistakable sign of her youth, and her hair was braided in a crown around her head. Her smile seemed sweet, even candid. At the gift receiver’s request, the next person opened his present, leaving her silent for some time and looking for the open arms of the only person in the room that had known her back then. 

Joly tested his present. The content inside the wrap was obviously made out of some kind of fabric, and it didn’t take him long to discover the blue scarf and the pair of matching mittens that awaited inside. Some of the threads were loose at the ends of the scarf, and Joly could almost fit a finger through the wrong end of the glove. Still, he put everything on and felt the softness of the wool, thanking his Santa with a bright smile.

“I worry about you when I see you shivering at the meetings” The chief said, “You should be ready for everything, and you certainly can’t be when you have a cold”

“Or something worse”, added Joly.

“Or something worse”, he agreed.

Only one gift remained at the table: a small, sloppily wrapped present labeled “Enj”. When “Enj” opened the present, a somewhat unconventional sight welcomed him.

Inside the red gift paper he found a colourful pot, said pot full of carefully selected candy of the same tone. The three red, white and blue stripes chapped at some points, revealing the irregular plaster of the handcraft.

It didn’t take long for him to figure out who his Secret Santa was; after all, not every candidate was in 6th grade. He raised his head and looked around, trying to find the kid that had honoured him with such a present.

“Where is he? I need to thank him, this was actually very considerate of him and… He needs to know I appreciate it”, he said.

“‘He’, you ask? Well, ‘he’ is very clearly sitting in front of you, eyeing his copy of Oliver Twist!” Grantaire waved with his hand towards Feuilly, who looked up, eyes wide with confusion.

“Me?”, he asked.

“Why, of course, ‘you’! Feuilly the Worker, the painter and fanmaker! Is there anyone amongst us that could create such a work of art other than him? Oh, Feuilly, the Peter Paul Rubens of our very group. He who will provide the world with evidence of our endeavors, only he could capture the fragility of the flag in such a meaningful way, only him…”

At some point, Grantaire’s ramble went from being an affectionate mock of the present to become a sincere praise to his friend, whose wish to disappear only grew with every word.

The one who had apparently disappeared, though, was not as far from the apartment as they thought. Surrounded by other gamins and celebrating his own Christmas, the child smiled at his own present.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! First and foremost want to apologise. English is not my first language and I tried my best so I really hope you enjoyed this little story!
> 
> The Secret Santas were chosen with a random raffle, but the moment the app chose Marius to be Combeferre's Santa and Gavroche to be Enjolras' I started thinking that I might be cheating with the pairings somehow? But no, I was just extremely lucky with them! I really wanted to do it this way so I wouldn't make the most common pairings and I could explore the different relationships between les Amis.
> 
> Once again, I hope you liked this and let me know what you think!


End file.
